So, maybe running away blindly hadn't been the best plan, Gotou though, chest heaving in exhaustion. He stood knee-deep in putrid water, the carapaces of two very large clawed creatures lying behind him, loot ungathered. His HP was dangerously low, and he'd run right into a nest of crabs. Klaws, he corrected himself internally, that annoying correcting sounding exactly like Masayoshi.
Once he'd stopped panting and sheathed his sword, slinging the shield over onto his back again, he looked around. Okay, so the giant fucking Godzilla-monster hadn't followed him this far, he'd either ditched it or it saw something else that made an easier snack. He could only hope that easier snack was not Masayoshi. Gotou exhaled, ran his hand down his face, and waved his hand, to attempt to bring up the chat program.
A big red circle with a line through it appeared briefly, and vanished.
Gotou looked up at the sky. Here the trees were sparser, the ground was soft and purplish, and frankly it smelled awful. Another mire of some kind; but at least he could see the sky. The sun hadn't quite set yet, but the sky was dark. "Shit," Gotou said out loud, as his stomach rumbled.
He was lost in the fucking woods, with creatures that were just high-level enough to give him difficulty, and he couldn't contact the rest of the group. Also, he was starving, and tired, and as much as he pretended otherwise frankly quite worried about Masayoshi.
First order of business then, was to try to find his way back to the campsite that Blue had been leading them toward, and hope that Masayoshi hadn't forgotten Gotou had no studio of his own and teleported back to Oriel, because then he'd be literally shit out of luck until the sun rose, and as awkward as sleeping in the same bed again after last night was, it beat out 'sleeping in the jungle' by a million to one.
Gotou looked up as he heard another Klaw move, its feet clicking even in the soft earth, and he backpedaled in the water, feeling it slosh and feeling infinitely grateful it wasn't seeping into his sabatons yet. "What a time to get separated," Gotou said out loud, and several of the nearby Klaw looked up at his voice, but none turned to him, or made moves in his direction. Gotou half-turned, trying to figure out which way he had come in his desperate flight, then looked at the sky and wished he had a clearer view of it, although presuming the sun set in the West still had had a decent idea which way was north. Approximately.
Something in the distance twinkled, to the west. It caught his eye, and Gotou looked in that direction, squinting through the trees. There were ruins that direction, and also the end of the map ... although truth be told, they hadn't been to the edge of any of the maps per se, so he wasn't certain what happened when they ran out of zone.
Gotou glanced back to the east, hesitating a second. Masayoshi was with Blue, he should be all right for a few minutes. Besides, what if this was something to do with their situation? It couldn't hurt to have a quick look. Decision made, Gotou started out at a quick jog in that direction, skirting the giant clawed crab-creatures to avoid needless conflict; his prior exhaustion melting away as if it had never been.
Masayoshi had run so hard he thought he was going to throw up. He stayed doubled-over, wheezing, palms of both hands on his greaves as he sucked air down his throat like a drowning swimmer.
Blue was sitting next to the resurrection obelisk in the small camp. Masayoshi had startled the hell out of the garrison outpost guards but they let him pass, mostly because he wasn't going to stop no matter what they did, so here he was. Blue raised his hand in greeting, and Masayoshi walked over to the obelisk and dropped into the soft grass beside him. "Sorry you got smashed," Masayoshi said.
Blue shrugged. "That thing was fucking massive, and it was an ultimate. It one-hit killed me, there's nothing anyone could have done."
Masayoshi nodded. He put his palms on his ankles now, looked at his weapon that he had dropped in the grass almost without thinking about it, and looked up. "I lost Gotou-san," he said quietly.
"Call him in chat," Blue suggested, unworried.
Masayoshi's fingers curled under his palms. He'd already tried that, only to see that Gotou was faded out from group chat, that he was unreachable. The same way that Black was. The fear that twisted in Masayoshi's gut was so heavy he felt like he was going to throw up, again and again. Black's disappearance had him worried, he was in the Abyss though and on some level that comforted Masayoshi - but Gotou had vanished from their sight, and chat, in a regular zone. Masayoshi swallowed and stared down, not seeing what he was staring at.
"Leader?" Blue asked, already standing. There was a hint of concern to his voice, curiosity mostly, but just a bit of concern.
Masayoshi stood up. "I have to find Gotou-san," he said.
Blue nodded, then jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "I'm gonna go turn into quests 'n stuff. See you in Sanctum?"
Masayoshi nodded blankly. He would have appreciated the company, but ... he wasn't about to ask for it. Masayoshi walked to the edge of the campsite, where it was surrounded by a crude wooden fence, where two armed guards stood eternal, sleepless watch.
"It's getting dark, traveler," one guard said without being addressed. "Stay the night, move on in the morning."
Masayoshi shook his head. "My friend's out there," he said.
The guard nodded in sympathy. "Then walk in Ariel's light," he offered. Masayoshi nodded his head, halberd in hand, as he started down the path, heading back for what was now clearly listed on the map in his pouch as Gojira's Nest.
Black sat with his back to the cell wall and wished for a baseball to throw at the opposing wall. It would be something to pass the time. He'd taken to counting the cycles of the Balaur guard patrol. If he was keeping time correctly, the creatures shuffled by every quarter hour. Fifteen minutes was a long cycle for a loop, but they moved slowly, so their patrol area might not be as big as it could be.
He'd tried, on one cycle, to get a rise out of the Balaur as they passed, hurling every insult he could think of at the beasts and aside from one looking at his cell as they passed, there was no cognizant response. His new friend picked up the slack as they passed her, but they didn't flinch.
There had to be some way out of here. Black stared up at the ceiling, smooth, slightly reddish rock like the rest of the cell. While the walls and ceiling were cracked, they were still solid and whole. He stood and paced out his cell again, longer than it was deep, the energy field crackling angrily when he stepped too near. Black sprinted across the cell, put one foot on the wall and caught the edge of the small window effortlessly. It was too narrow for him to get through, he'd tried that already - hanging at the window by his hands he could see out, reddish darkness that told him he was still in the Abyss. Black sighed and dropped back down to his feet.
"Nice view, isn't it?"
He turned quickly on his heel.
There was someone new outside his cell. Black stared, then walked boldly to the open edge, where the energy crackled and fluctuated. Black looked the man up and down - he was in full body armor, some of the nicest gear that Black had seen in game. He also wore a full helm that concealed his true identity. "Let us go," Black said, and the man shook his head just slightly, which was more than enough to cause the helmet to scrap against the armor.
"I can't let such vital components run free," he said, hands folded and resting on the pommel of a great sword, its edges glowing red along the blade. "Without you, the rest of them won't come to me," he said illustratively.
Black said nothing, stared at him.
The armored man said nothing else, content to engage with Black via a stare-off. It was a long silence between them, but Black wasn't the one to break it. The armored man sighed heavily. "Always so difficult," he said. "You'll be in here a while, you should enjoy your rest more."
Black said, very calmly, very politely. "I'm going to get out of here, and I'm going to kill you."
The man tapped his helmet. "Very nice," he said. "Very effective, in a land where death is fleeting. Have fun with that." He flexed his hand, pulled his sword from where its point sat in the concrete, and sheathed it. "I enjoyed this, good talk," he said, and cast a wave at Black as he strode cheerfully out of sight.
Night fell in the jungle, but Gotou didn't notice.
The ruins were off the map. They were northwest of the Klaw's breeding grounds. It was a building carved directly into the cliff's face, made of sandstone. Several columns were shattered, and it had collapsed on that side, a landslide covering half of its entrance. Gotou wasn't entirely certain what had glittered about it, as the entire place was overgrown and looked as if it hadn't been touched in a hundred years. He stood at the base of the steps and looked up into what hadn't been collapsed by decades of obscurity.
There was something about this that felt strangely familiar to Gotou. He pulled his shield from his back before unsheathing his sword and taking a few cautious steps up the crumbled stairs. He didn't like the crawling feeling up and down his spine, the vague sense of dread that circled in his belly ... but he wanted to get to the bottom of it, because he had the very strange feeling that if he didn't investigate, this chance would not come again.
The entrance was obscured by fallen tree branches. Gotou stepped over the lowest, ducked over the highest, and let his sword lead to catch the cobwebs that had built. The foyer that he stepped into was large and open, lit only by the dim light that streamed in behind him. The ceiling itself was lost into murky blackness ,but the hallway continued, dropping down and out of sight. Two passages to either side of him also dropped into all-consuming darkness. Gotou relaxed his stance, but kept his weapons up.
There was no way to go further without a source of light, and not being a sorcerer-class, he had no way to generate it. Gotou looked around at the debris, fallen tree limbs and leaves, dirt that had wandered in over the ages, and felt a brief ache of familiarity that he didn't understand or could place. This meant something, and he couldn't understand what it was.
A wind generated from the passage to his left, a breeze that howled through the rock face and blasted past him, bringing with it the odor of putrefaction. Gotou gagged, slightly, and took a few steps backward, stumbling back over a log that had likely been here longer than he'd been alive.
Gotou slung himself to his feet, staggered slightly, and climbed out the entrance, the way he had come in. There would be no exploring these ruins tonight.
He'd only been in there a few short minutes, but already the outside world smelled fresh, even with the bog not far. Gotou seated himself on the crumbling stairs and looked at the sky. He could see the stars, from here.
It was the soft brush of lips across his own that woke him. Gotou struggled to consciousness, he'd been dreaming of her, sunny-bright smile and infectious laugh; long hair turned golden by the summer sun ... and as he swam past that thought, he grabbed on to an arm and hauled himself half-upright.
Eyes open, vision not cloudy, Masayoshi's face. Gotou sighed out a noise of exasperation, hand still tight on Masayoshi's arm. "Didn't mean to fall asleep," he said gruffly, choosing not to remember what had brought him to wakefulness.
Masayoshi's face was entirely too close, tawny hair brown in the dim twilight. He was watching Gotou intently, then slowly reached his hand out, brushed it over Gotou's cheek and cupped his jaw. Gotou blinked at the tender move, didn't have the forethought to shove Masayoshi away as he brought their mouths together again.
Gotou's eyes widened, the grip on Masayoshi's arm tightened - his other hand flattened against the chest plate of Masayoshi's armor, he could push if he wanted to but he didn't, breath caught in his chest like a trapped balloon.
"Masayoshi," Gotou gasped when they finally broke apart, his lips bruised and jaw aching. Where had Masayoshi learned to kiss like that? "Masayoshi-"
Masayoshi covered Gotou's eyes with one gauntleted hand, said in a soft, unfamiliar voice, "you're still dreaming," and kissed him again.
This time when Gotou opened his eyes, he was alone on the stone steps of the ruin. He scrambled upright, back and neck sore from the slumped position he had napped in, and he covered his mouth with one hand, blushing furiously despite being alone. Fuck.
Where had that come from?
Even with the wildlife that populated the Manduri forest being awake and active, it felt quieter now, at night. Masayoshi kept at the steady jog they'd traveled in, ignoring the way his stomach occasionally grumbled and how exhaustion pulled at him. He would try the chat, on occasion - the plaintive Gotou-san, are you there? feeling echoed and lonely.
Eventually, Masayoshi came back around to the nest, now listed as Gojira's Nest on his map. The frillnecks he ran into were few and far between now, after sunset. Masayoshi left his halberd on his back, kept his hands free as he moved quickly through the clearings that peppered the nest, created by the gigantic frillneck the game had unironicially tagged Gojira.
Masayoshi stopped beside a tree, put one palm on its trunk as he paused, breathing heavily. He was tired, logic dictated that he should go rest, Gotou would be fine - even if Masayoshi found him at a resurrection obelisk he'd be fine - but Black's uncommunicative status and his own nagging worry about what else was going on here would not let him rest until he found his friend.
Spreading to the west was the Klaw's territory, large crabs nesting and spawning ... the forest had been taken over there, transformed not quite into a bog but into something else entirely, the Klaw's encroaching habitat terraforming the existing forest, killing the trees and growing something in shades of violet, probably a fungus of some kind. There were more Klaws then usual, the opposite of the frillnecks, so Masayoshi moved carefully around their territory, eyes open wide, and still the occasional, tossed whisper into the group chat. Gotou-san?
Nothing.
Masayoshi paused again, along the well-worn path that numerous daevas had run down before, only this time he did conjure the map. When it fell into his hands Masayoshi immediately felt foolish, while night here was a lot lighter than in reality, it was still too dark to read ink on parchment. All the same he unrolled it, and stared in surprise at the map, where the letters and lines glowed faintly, just enough to be made out in the darkness. A smile quirked across his mouth as he glanced over the map. Klaw territory - where he was - slightly north of that was a small village symbol marked, but no name to go with it. There was a path between the Klawtan Wallow and the village, it faded out into the west but was otherwise unmarked. It seemed to glow, just a bit more than the rest of the map.
He squinted at it, certain it was just a trick of the light - and when he shifted position it seemed that the path's luminescence was no greater than the rest of the map's. All the same, it had caught his attention, and he may as well head that direction. Masayoshi rolled the map, and without thinking tucked it away. He'd keep on this trail until it diverged ... and if he was lucky, he would find Gotou at the end of it.
Gotou was still seated on the steps of the ruin when he saw the movement from the edge of the clearing. He shifted himself to his feet and stared out, but even at this distance it was easy enough to see that it was a player, and he smiled and tried not let the relief be evident in his voice as he waved. "Masayoshi! Over here!"
The figure had been running parallel to the cliff side, and the ruins - but it abruptly shifted and angled toward Gotou. Gotou's hand dropped like a stone, and he backpedaled furiously because the figure didn't slow down - and Gotou realized that while the build matched Masayoshi's, the dark, tattered armor and warhammer definitely did not.
He'd never had much by way of speed - templars just moved slower on principal, it was one of the stat sacrifices - and Gotou's head start was nonexistent. He had his sword unsheathed and in his hand, and the shield flipped off his back and onto his arm and the only thing he really had time to do was brace as the warhammer impacted with his shield with enough force that Gotou could almost see the HP drop off his health bar.
His attacker was wearing a full-face helmet - dark and gnarled like the rest of his armor, and his shape was just vaguely not human. Gotou didn't have enough time to assess much else, as he was more focused on not letting that hammer strike him in a vulnerable and squishy spot, like his head.
"You know what?" Gotou said, as his sword slid off the bracers his attacker wore. "This is bullshit." He backpedaled, and slammed into the wall of the ruins with both his shoulders, the impact hard enough that he lost more HP. He ducked and threw his shield up, directing the glancing blow of the warhammer into the stone behind him, and felt the spray of debris as the hammer damaged the wall. The attacker still did not speak, except for the occasional grunt of effort as he wielded what must be a ridiculously heavy weapon. "What's the matter?" Gotou grunted, thrusting his sword forward and feeling a mild thrill of success at the way his attacker leaped back. That must have stung. "Karnif's got your tongue?"
He pushed off the wall with his shoulders, back on his feet, and twirled the sword loosely in his hand as his attacker squared himself. He couldn't see their name, or level, like he could with monsters. "Don't you have a name?" Gotou said, bracing himself, one foot forward, eyes on his attacker.
Still nothing, didn't seem like he could taunt a response from this guy. Gotou brought both his elbows in toward himself, shield across his front, and focused - and to his surprise a buff appeared, a quick flash of white light enveloped him just as the attacker swung his hammer again, it collided with the light and bounced right back off. "All right," Gotou said, shifting his weight to his back foot and kicking, shoving his attacker back while he was already off balance. "I'll get the hang of this yet."
The player stumbled backward, his heel caught on some of the scattered debris from the ruin, and when he went to catch his balance he stepped back into space, missing the step and tumbling backward, landing in a sprawl at the base of the steps Gotou had been sitting on. The light from Gotou's buff faded, but that was all right, because he was getting the hang of this. Gotou advanced forward, shield still held tight to his front, eyes on his attacker.
He got to his feet, warhammer in one hand, and moved forward all at once, quicker than Gotou expected, and much faster than he could block this time. He took the full impact of the hammer on his left side, and it flung him sideways down the steps, a huge chunk of his HP dropping on contact. The armor took the brunt of the blow, even if his HP suffered for it, but Gotou rolled as the attacked struck at him with the hammer again, this time leaving a deep crater in the dirt.
Gotou had dropped his sword when he fell, it was now behind his attacker, who had his warhammer in both hands, advancing on Gotou still. Gotou scrambled to his feet, felt the adrenaline surge as he sucked air down into his lungs, and dropped his shoulders, putting more of himself behind his shield. He would have to charge, meet the attack head-on, and hope he could power through and around to get to his weapon if he stood any chance of living through this.
He couldn't see his enemy's HP - he could see the damage he took, but no real idea of how much more it would take to fell him, or if every time they paused like this the attacker was taking advantage of potions and salves that he couldn't see. His one advantage was that the warhammer was a slow weapon, once he started striking he had to follow through, he couldn't change attacks or tasks mid-swing. It gave Gotou a very small opportunity, but it was one nonetheless.
The attacker wound up - his hammer started glowing, red around the edges and down the leather that wrapped around its hammer, and Gotou realized suddenly if it hit him it was going to be all over, there was no way his shield would hold through a strike of that magnitude. "Shit," Gotou said, and braced himself.
The strike came from Gotou's right, the blast of energy tearing half through the ground and strong enough to knock them both off their feet. The attacker's skill was interrupted mid-stream, and Gotou was on his feet in an instant, dodging around the attacker and scooping up his sword, shield up as he turned in case the enemy was just as fast to regain his footing.
His enemy was quick, but the attacker faced the new threat coming toward him instead of Gotou. Gotou couldn't help the sharp grin that split his face. "Well," he said as he took a stance, shield up to cover him as Masayoshi swung his halberd hard, its blade glowing green with energy. "You're fucked."
The impact of Masayoshi's weapon hitting the attacker's was enough to throw up a wall of energy, chunks of sod and rocks flying in every direction. Gotou heard them ping off his shield, and then he charged, shield first, bringing his sword around in a violent, sweeping motion.
The player had been prepared for one-on-one combat, but clearly not two-on-one. He tried to bolt, but Masayoshi's sweeping skill had magic attached to the halberd's blow, and it rooted the attacker. He tried to catch Gotou's sword on a swing, and that did it for the attacker's HP - he went stock-still, the color shooting out of his armor, before he faded out entirely.
Gotou stared at the ground where the attacker had vanished, as the roots that had trapped his feet retreated into the undisturbed segment of earth. His chest was heaving, he was shaking - he glanced up at Masayoshi, who was staring at the same section of the ground, his face clearly uncertain about what had just occurred. Gotou sheathed his sword, took several large steps over, shield still on his arm.
Masayoshi shook his head, saw Gotou, and his eyes got wide and then softened, relieved. "Gotou-san," he said - and Gotou put his hand on Masayoshi's chestplate, grabbed at the curve of it, and pulled him down. Masayoshi went with the tug, surprised - and his eyes widened again, just like that in shock, as Gotou kissed him.
It was over in an instant, and Gotou released Masayoshi, took a step back and looked back at the swath of destruction that still existed from the brief battle. "Took you long enough," he said to Masayoshi, who stood there stunned, touching his fingers to his lips.
Gotou had never been so glad to see an actual bed in a long time. He had half his armor off before Masayoshi had shooed off the Shugo butler, back to the station outside the studio, so that they could sleep in peace. Masayoshi hadn't said much, for better or worse, since they had reunited.
"Hey, 'yoshi?" Gotou said, leaning his shield and sword against the wall. "Earlier, in-game ... did you ever have a different armor set, maybe with a violet color scheme?"
Masayoshi hesitated, a sabaton in his hand as he took his boots off. "No," he said. "I got this armor a while ago, before then it was piecemeal since I only got armor as drops or rewards for quests."
Gotou shook his head, as if dispelling the fragment of a memory. "Why did you ask, Gotou-san?" Masayoshi was genuinely curious about this, something else to latch on to instead of the obvious, the thing he wanted to talk about most.
"Just a dream," Gotou said vaguely, down to thin shirt and shorts that he wore under his armor, that served as underwear here, in this game. He slid into the bed, flopping over to the side against the wall, and yawned.
Masayoshi walked to the bed, his armor shed now too, but he stood at its edge and looked at Gotou thoughtfully. "We don't have a lot of time to rest," Gotou said. "I want to get as much sleep as possible, and then we'll eat tomorrow before we go find the others."
"Gotou-san," Masayoshi said softly.
Gotou rolled up onto his side, presenting Masayoshi with his shoulder, clearly done talking. "'Night, 'yoshi." He squeezed his eyes shut, as if Masayoshi could even see them from the angle he was standing at.
He felt the mattress bow as Masayoshi climbed into the bed as well. There was a moment of busy shuffling, then Masayoshi leaned over Gotou's side, and Gotou opened his eyes reflexively, looked up at Masayoshi in the dim natural lighting of the studio.
Masayoshi was smiling, soft and gentle. He brushed his hand over Gotou's head, ruffling his hair slightly. Gotou exhaled and closed his eyes again, as Masayoshi slid down into the bed beside him, presenting his back to Gotou. "Goodnight, Gotou-san," Masayoshi said, and Gotou felt his face flush in the darkness, grateful at least that Masayoshi couldn't see that.
"Hey," Blue said, kicking one of the bed posts. "You gonna sleep all day, or what?"
Masayoshi opened his eyes and squinted at the ceiling. The room's ambient lighting was much brighter now, definitely daylight - he rolled a little and looked to his left, to see Blue standing with his arms folded and looking impatient.
"That better not be Souichi," Gotou's voice came muffled from behind Masayoshi, face buried mostly in his pillow.
"How," Masayoshi said, sitting up and rubbing his hand over his face. He was a little uncomfortable, having a repeat of the problem he'd had yesterday, but thankfully the bed sheet tented as he sat up, and hid his issue. "How did you get in to my studio, Blue?"
Blue shrugged, hiked a thumb over his shoulder at the door. "You can, you know, lock the door," he said. "There's an option to make your studio private, if you really want that."
"If I do that it kicks Gotou-san," Masayoshi said. He looked to the door and saw his Shugo butler peeking in, a scared look on his face.
"What time is it?" Gotou still hadn't actually moved.
"Morning," Blue said. He kicked the bed post again cheerfully. "Rise and shine, we've got a whole new day of adventuring ahead of us!"
"I'm going to kill him," Gotou said philosophically.
"Don't do that," Masayoshi soothed without looking at Gotou. "It won't do any good, he'll just resurrect wherever he's bound."
"Yes, but that won't be here." Gotou lifted his head finally and glared at Blue. "I can take him."
Masayoshi nodded his head, still made no move to climb out of bed. "I know you can."
"Leader," Blue said. "That's not funny." He unfolded his arms, and put his hands on his hips this time.
"We'll meet you in Rockport," Masayoshi said. "Give us fifteen minutes."
"An hour," Gotou said, face back in the pillow. "At least an hour."
"Forty-five minutes," Masayoshi amended.
"Okay," Blue said with an exaggerated sigh. "But I'm not waiting on you to eat." His piece said, he half-turned and walked toward the door, where the Shugo was fearfully hiding. Masayoshi watched him exit, waited a few agonizing moments until he heard Blue's footsteps fade, and then glanced at the butler, who was still lingering in the doorway.
"Outside, please," Masayoshi said. The Shugo shuffled a moment, then nodded and scurried outside. Masayoshi sighed deeply. "The Shugo butler was terrified," he reported to Gotou, who may or may not have gone back to sleep.
"Well, he did kinda fail in his job of standing guard," Gotou said.
"Yeah, but," Masayoshi glanced back to the door. "Really scared. Maybe Shugos are just skittish, but, I don't know..."
Gotou rolled over onto his side now, so that Masayoshi could see his face. He stared at Masayoshi with sleep-heavy dark eyes, and Masayoshi couldn't help the blush that started at his ears. "Why are you staring at me?" he asked, and Gotou propped his head on his hand.
"You're not getting out of bed because you have morning wood again," he observed, and the blush completed its journey across Masayoshi's face in record time.
"I, I don't-" Masayoshi stuttered, then looked resolutely away, toward the other side of the single-room studio. "You kissed me," he said, studying very intently the pattern of boards that made up one wall.
There was no response from Gotou, and Masayoshi summed up his courage and looked back at him - Gotou was staring at the bed between them, blushing a bit himself. "Don't read anything into it," Gotou said heavily, refusing to look at Masayoshi. "It was the adrenaline, okay? It was a rush-"
Masayoshi shifted so he was facing Gotou, and the sudden movement made Gotou glance up at him in surprise. "Masayoshi," Gotou said as Masayoshi reached out and down, and Gotou didn't have enough time to react properly as Masayoshi's hand cupped the front of Gotou's underwear, felt him hard and warm. "What the hell-" Gotou said, both of his hands out, pushing at Masayoshi's shoulders.
"You're hard, too," Masayoshi said triumphantly, and Gotou shoved him off finally, although it took both hands and one foot.
"Why did you-" Gotou yelled, face entirely pink now.
"Gotou-san," Masayoshi said, quite seriously. "Are you in love with me?"
"What!?" Gotou's yell turned into a screech, a bit high-pitched for him. He slapped one hand over his mouth and turned, refused to face Masayoshi, staring at the wall. "No, I'm not, you're a fucking idiot-!"
"You're hard," Masayoshi said, softly though.
"It's a natural response, it's morning wood, and you fucking touched it-" Gotou's shoulders slumped just slightly, he put his head in one hand and sighed deeply. "I'm not in love with you, Masayoshi," he said it firmly this time, with a bit of conviction behind it.
Masayoshi didn't realize how badly those words would sting, even with the unsaid qualifier dangling behind it. "But...?" he prompted, because it was the only thing that he could do at the moment.
Gotou let out a long sigh. "But you're special to me, okay? You're my friend, and-"
"You don't kiss friends," Masayoshi accused, cutting him off. Gotou lifted his head, half-turned and looked at Masayoshi, a little angry.
"I told you, that was an accident," Gotou said. Masayoshi sat up on his knees, grabbed Gotou by the shoulder and pulled him toward Masayoshi, turning his head up to just the right angle and kissing him, hard.
Masayoshi's only experience with kissing was all due to his acting career, but that didn't matter, right now because this was Gotou, he smelled like Gotou, he tasted like Gotou - and this was a kiss that was real, that mattered - and Gotou didn't shove him away, curled his fingers in the thin fabric of Masayoshi's undershirt, and only then after a moment realized what he was doing and tried to shove Masayoshi away.
"Accident," Masayoshi said, their faces scant inches apart, both of them breathing hard, "huh?"
Gotou let out a loud noise of aggravation, grabbed Masayoshi by the shoulder and shoved, thumping him down into the bed with a surprised noise. Masayoshi tried to push up against Gotou's grip, he should be stronger with the size difference between them now but Gotou threw his leg over Masayoshi's stomach, leaned down and held Masayoshi's face still with both hands as they kissed again.
This was insane, Masayoshi thought giddily. He couldn't get enough of Gotou's mouth, hot and demanding, and the fact that he was straddling Masayoshi, right now - it may have been morning wood to start, but now his body ached in a different way, and he very tentatively put his hands on Gotou's waist. He let out a low noise into Masayoshi's mouth, and Masayoshi responded in kind, slid his palm down Gotou's front and pressed it over his groin.
That brought Gotou back to earth. He jerked his head back, eyes wide - looked at Masayoshi, startled, like a skittish colt and Masayoshi wet his lips, looked at him pleadingly. "Please," Masayoshi said, voice hoarse, not really certain what it was that he wanted, but knew that he needed Gotou to say it was okay, to tell him to continue, to keep going...
Gotou shifted under Masayoshi's palm, closed his eyes. Then he shifted his weight back, and put his hand over the bulge in Masayoshi's underwear. Eyes still closed, biting his bruised lower lip, Gotou squeezed.
This was insane, Gotou thought dazedly, legs over Masayoshi's as they sat together in the tangle of sheets. Masayoshi's hand was bigger, it was wrapped around them both, pressing their straining erections together, slick with their combined fluid. He couldn't think much else, because Masayoshi kept kissing him, and between that, his head tilted back, Masayoshi's other hand cupping the back of his head, fingers tangled in his hair and the pure sensation of pleasure that threatened to overwhelm everything, Gotou could barely hold on.
"'yoshi," he said as Masayoshi drew back just a little, staring down at him - and his expression was hungry in a way Gotou had never seen before, and it sent a shiver down his spine, an anticipation of something else, something later. He felt it building now ,the pressure seated low, and he leaned back just a little as Masayoshi shifted his grip, squeezed hard, made it tighter. "Masayoshi," Gotou breathed, eyes squeezed shut. "Gonna, gonna-"
"Me too," Masayoshi's head tilted in to his, he smelled of sweat and musk and Masayoshi, Masayoshi's teeth found his neck, he kissed Gotou there. "Me too, Gotou-san-"
Fuck, Gotou thought in that split-second of clarity before his orgasm hit. There wasn't going to be any backpedaling from this...
Blue sat in the tavern in Rockport Village, both hands around the flagon of steaming-something that he had received as a breakfast drink and blushing furiously, intensely red.
Someone was going to have to tell them that group chat recorded everything said, and it wasn't going to be him.